I think the best thing anyone did for them was to cut out Ray Manzarek’s organ solo for the single of “Light My Fire.”
Riders on the Storm grabbed me when it first came out, and I was hooked. Not on everything they did, but enough so that I listened to everything they released. I still love Crystal Ship, LA Woman, The End, Light My Fire, and Spanish Caravan. They’re on my all time favorite band list.
He definitely had issues… Some people try to attribute this to “success”, but he was arrested when he was 19 for public drunkenness and for stealing a cop’s hat from his patrol car… Probably has something to do with his militaristic father (Ray’s book mentions this a bit), who he considered dead… But he did see his siblings from time to time…
I’m of two minds on the Doors. For one thing, I think they’re great. OTOH, I think they’re overrated. In other words, they’re great, but they ain’t that great.
I loved Light My Fire when it first came out in 1967 when I was 16. I liked atmospheric songs like Crystal Ship, Riders on the Storm, and The End. But they never grabbed me as much as Hendrix, the Stones, or others.
My very first rock concert was The Doors at the Singer Bowl in the old New York World’s Fair Grounds on August 2, 1968, with The Who (who were not that well known in the US at the time) opening for them. I went with a couple of friends, one of whom was a total Doors freak. Morrison was completely drunk and managed to provoke the crowd into a riot.
You missed mentioning that Ray came from Chicago, and was heavily influenced by the blues sound there.
I loved the Door’s music, and even knew some of the hits from AM radio when Jim was still alive (but I was pretty young)
Yeah, but so was like almost every rock band of the 60s and 70s. To me, Ray’s playing, while it did have blues influence, wasn’t particularly bluesy. I hear more modal jazz and even classical influences in his playing. Which, don’t get me wrong – it’s cool that it’s not just straight-up blues or even majority blues. It gave him a unique sound. Like I said, it’s not one I particularly like, and I really don’t like his left hand playing, but it suits their music well and gives it much of their psychedelic spacey droney feel. His keyboard playing had a distinct voice.
Have to disagree, that distinction clearly goes to The Grateful Dead.
As a child of the '70s I was aware of the band and heard the radio hits without thinking too much about it. For me, it was hearing Absolutely Live at the right time and place in '81. I was pretty into them for awhile after that, but eventually felt like I grew out of the angsty parts of their catalogue, still listen on occasion, though.
Yeah, he’s far from the bluesiest player, by far. Nor were Krieger or Densmore. They all seemed to digest the blues and their other influences pretty well, though, and the blend usually works. That’s one of the reasons I sometimes find ideas for my own writing when examining Doors songs, sometimes they’re odd enough to make you think about what you yourself should do.
And oof, sometime in my late teenage years my sister got me a book of Morrison’s poetry as a birthday gift. It’s not great poetry, but most of it would actually make acceptable free-form lyrics. It’s what made me actually understand the difference between poetry and lyrics, and I thank him for that.
So yeah, I like The Doors. But temper that with the fact I also like The Archies, as far as they go.
Hey, I like ”Sugar, Sugar”, so I’m with you there!
Very interesting read… I wish more of THESE kinds of shows were on YouTube.
There is Miami of course, and Cleveland “Chaos” show on there, but the audio is so grainy.
Strange Days was, I think, the 2nd album I ever bought. Loved it to death, but even my 13 year old self recognized Morrison’s lyrics as pretentious twaddle. Horse Latitudes? Seriously?
(The opening of Apocalypse Now, with the napalm, slo-mo helicopters and The End is just jaw-dropping film-making, btw.)
Does anyone think that the Eagles Hotel California was an homage to the Doors? The phrase “prison of our own device” is word for word from Unhappy Girl, on Strange Days.
I never liked “Horse Latitudes”, lol… I’m not even a big fan of “Light My Fire”, but I love Robby’s solo.
“Prison of our device” never occurred to me, and I’m thinking you’re probably right.
That was my introduction to the Doors at age 14. I became a fan overnight and stayed one until Punk displaced all other music for me for a couple years. When I revisited music from the Sixties in my 20s, the Doors were one of the few bands that just didn’t “click” with me anymore. I think it was just the association with the best movie I’d ever seen that made me a Doors fan. An unfortunate encounter with a book of Morrison’s poetry soured my taste for them even further.
'I am the Lizard King…I can do anything."
In the heyday of underground comix (R Crumb, et al) there was a title that stuck with me: “Clean Wholesome Tales of Sex and Death”. I always thought that was a good description of The Doors.
Me too! I got that record from the back of a Super Sugar Crisp cereal box!
Much like many other posters here, I was into them pretty hard for a while, but they lost their shine and it just doesn’t hold up for me anymore. HMS really nailed it their post. Looking back, Morrison was just a punk-ass twat.
After watching some docs on the band with live performance footage, I lost all respect for Densmore, who would bolt from the stage at the first sign of trouble, while Robbie and Ray kept playing. 
Kind of amusing, actually. Maybe he’s the smart one?
Ah, back in the days when you can have “SUGAR” emblazoned upon your morning cereal box and it didn’t hurt sales. 
I very vaguely remember Super Sugar Crisp. Looks like it changed to Super Golden Crisp in 1985. Also, Sugar Corn Pops.
One of my favorite sayings is, “I’m like a Bass Player in a Doors Tribute Band”
Works for many situations.
OMG, that was genius.